The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-07-05
'VHE DALLAS AND ARCHER.
A New Railway Through a Rich
Coal and Agricultural
Region.

mas cnarHe. OF INC liSuo VI ""v
department of the Dallas, Archer
& Pacific Railway, and has just re-
turned from a trip through the
zcountry along the line of the pro-
road, and applied the re-
portOrial pump and elected from
him the following:
"What were your Impressions
regarding the prospects OF the
road and the resources or the
country to be traversed by the
lineW
eTo tell you that | was astonish-
ed at the almost incompatible re-
sources of the country on the line
would be inadequate to express
any idea of the favorable impress
sions formed. From Decatur
west we found an almost mex
haustible supply of rich minerals
of iron, coal and copper. The iron
in Wise county and the North
western portions Of Jack and the
Southwestern portion of Mont
ague and part of Clay is red
hemitite and is found in great
abundance on the surface in the
form of drift, and thousands OF
tons can be gathered without the
aid of the pick, while the noun
tains from which the drift evident
ly comes would yield from 40 to
Go per cent. of pure ore. The coal
of Wise, Jack and Clay Is n good
quality of bituminOus character
! and ia used by the blacksmiths and
! iron-workers almost exclusively.
While at Newport, Clay county, l
saw the coal tested in Mr.. Cleve-
lands forge ard it cooked almost
equal to Pennsylvania coal. The
vein from which the coal was
taken is what may be called a sur
face vein, and is about - inches
thick, the vein charging in dimen-
sions as the mine is extended. The
valleys in those counties are, in
nv opinion, the richest. soil for
agricultural purposes l have seen
in Texas for the culture of all the
cereals, in addition to being parti-
cularly adapted to cotton and fruit.
AS we passed into Archer county
we found the mineral deposits in.
creasing in quantity as tar as could
be seen by surface OutcrOpings.
Near Archer City we found, in adj
dition to the coal and iron,. a rich
deposite of sulphate of copper,
which seems so rich that it would
weld at least 60 per cent. of pure
ore, and some assays have been
made as high as 81 per cent"
"Wbat amount of traffic and
trade do you think would be
tributary to your line of rOadw
"That can only be estimated ap.
\ proximately for the reason that at
present the rich mineral deposits
/ have spoken Of are as yet en-
tirely undeveloped. But by the
building Of a line of railway
through to the coal, iron and cop
per mines and the establishment
of blast furnaces, taking into con.
sideration also the rich agricultur-
al productions that are now tri-
butary to the Fort Worth & Den
yer, by q long wagon haul. l do
not believe that in five years from
to-day a single track railway will
be able to handle the traffic, for
with connection with Dallas as
manufacturing centre, the crude
ore of iron and copper to Dallas
and other points alone would take
several thousand cars aside from
the additional rolling stock for
coal and agricultural productions
and live stock, for line of railway
could profitably deliver coal at
Dallas at a price not T. exceed
three dollars per ton"
Do you know whether it is the
intention of the management
to commence the work of con-
struction at Dallas or some other
p,intq Well that of course depends
somewhat on the action of Dallas.
The prime object of the manage
ment is to reach the rich mineral
fields of Archer and adjoining
counties at the earliest date pos
sible and there connect with the
c. r. T. & p. which Company is
now building in Kansas in that
direction. If Dallas, however, as
she ALWAYS has done i'm the past